written by threadslinger

I wanted to make something the other day for dessert but I also wanted it to be refreshing. I went to the grocery store and found some berries, not sure what to do with them yet. So, I did what I always do, called my mom for ideas. She gave me this awesome cobbler recepie that has easily fed 10 people and I still have some left! Plus, it is delicious.

Ingredients

2 Qts blackberries
2 C sugar
5 T corn starch
1 t vanilla
1 C butter
1 1/2 C brown sugar
2 C oatmeal
1 1/2 C flour
1 t baking powder

Directions

1. Mix berries, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla in sauce pan. Cook until bubbly and thick, about 10 min on medium heat. Take off heat and allow to cool.
2. Sift remaining dry ingreidents together, then cut in the butter.
3. In a 10 x 5 glass pan put a layer of dry ingredients, then add the berries on top, finally add another layer of the dry ingredients on the top. Cook for 45 min on 375.

written by marieann

I LOVE asparagus. When I cooked this, I ate the tips garnish like candy as I was cooking. If you’re lucky like me, asparagus is cheap this spring ($1 for 2 pounds!). This soup is so creamy and fulfilling. I didn’t realize how easy and satisfying it is to make cream vegetable soups. And it did not even change the color of my pee.

Ingredients:
2 pounds fresh asparagus

4 tablespoons butter

1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped

1 large or two small leeks, the white part and some of the light green, thoroughly washed and chopped

1 1/2 cups russet potatoes, peeled and diced

2 heaping tablespoons of dried parsley
5 cups chicken or vegetable broth (canned or homemade)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 or more cups heavy cream, light cream or milk 


Directions:

1. Wash and trim the asparagus, and cut into 1-inch pieces, reserving the tips. Cook the tips in a small amount of boiling water until barely tender, then drain, rinse them in cold water and set them aside for the garnish. 


2. In a large pot, melt the butter over low heat and saute the onions and leeks until soft and translucent. Add the potatoes, asparagus, parsley and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently just until all the vegetables are tender, about 10 or 15 minutes. 


3. Remove from the heat and puree the mixture in a blender or food processor. Return the soup to the pan, stir in enough cream to make a consistency you like, and heat just until steaming. Add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to bowls and garnish with the asparagus tips. 



Yield: serves 4 to 6

written by threadslinger

On Easter I wanted to make a quiche, but I accidentally dyed all the eggs in my house (oops) but 4 which is enough for a quiche, but not ideal so this recepie is modified a bit. This is also a very simple quiche reciepe because I am a no frills girl, there are more intense ones online if you are into making one that is more complicated. The great thing about this quiche is that it is nearly impossible to mess up, I just added the veggies I had on hand and feel free to substitute in your favorites. This was very tasty and super easy to make.

Ingredients

1 quiche pastry shell (found in most grocery stores in the refrigerated section)
4 eggs
1/2 C milk
10 mushrooms
1 onion
1/2 head of fresh broccoli
1/2 C cheese (cheddar)
1 t butter
1 t garlic powder
1 t basil or oregano

Directions

1. Boil some water and put the broccoli in, let it cook while you chop up the onions and mushrooms. Then saute mushrooms, onion and butter, add in garlic as it is cooking. Once the mushrooms have “shrunk” they are done. Take both the broccoli and the mushrooms and set aside.

2. Whisk together the eggs and the milk. Pour into pastry shell. Then mix in veggies. After that is done sprinkle cheese on top, press down with a fork to make sure that it sinks into the quiche.

3. Bake on 350 for 30 minutes, check and see if done (use the tooth pick test, ie stick a tooth pick in the middle, if it comes out clean then its done). If its not finished yet put back in for another 15 minutes until its done. Then eat to your hearts content.

written by marieann

This food is crazily tasty. I got the recipe from the Self Challenge meal plan. It is shocking how incredibly good this is. It’s now my favorite food. And to believe it’s actually good for you. I have never been so happy to eat broccoli. Be ready to be amazed. Also this is so easy.

Note that this is just 1 serving; multiple as necessary.

Ingredients
2 cups broccoli rabe
2 tsp olive oil
1 chopped clove garlic
3/4 cup uncooked whole wheat penne pasta (1 cup cooked)
1/3 cup shredded fresh regular mozzarella
1 tbsp pine nuts

Instructions
1. Boil the broccoli rabe for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from pot; when cool enough to handle, chop coarsely.

2. Sauté the broccoli rabe in the olive oil with the clove garlic for 6 minutes.

3. Toss with the hot, cooked whole-wheat penne, mozzarella and pine nuts.

written by threadslinger

When I first became a vegetarian I naturally just replaced meat in my diet with pasta and since I’m italian, pasta was always a staple in my life that grew when I no longer had chicken. However, I was quickly realizing that eating a lot of pasta is not good for staying fit so I have been investing in different kinds of veggie dishes that can still fill you up. I found this cassarole which is awesome tasting, super easy and very healthy.

Ingedients:

1 Cup long grain rice
2 Cups water
2 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds zucchini cubed (i used 3 medium sized zucchs)
1 Cup sliced green onions
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/4 t garlic salt
1/2 t basil
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t dried oregano
1 1/2 C seeded, chopped tomatoes
2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Combine rice and water in a saucepan (or rice cooker if you have one)and bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat and simmer 20 min.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a shallow casserole dish.
3. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook zucchini, green onions and garlic for 5 min or until tender. Season with salt, basil, paprika, and oregno.

4. Mix in cooked rice, tomatoes and 1 cup cheese. Continue to cook and stir until heated through. Transfer to the prepared casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.

5. Bake uncovered for 20 min or unitl cheese is melted and bubbly. Enjoy

written by marieann

I made these vegetarian enchiladas with mexi-rice/beans for my boyfriend on Valentines’ Day. He’d been wanting Mexican food for weeks but was too scared of the real Mexican restaurants nearby with the menus in Spanish. So with the help of a friend, I invented this recipe for enchiladas and they turned out fantastic. If you use no fat sour cream and low fat cheese, it’s not nearly as bad for you as real Mexican food either!

Ingredients
1 can of cream of cheddar soup
1 cup of sour cream
3/4 cup of chunky salsa
4 stalks of green onion
1 1/2 cups of Mexican cheese (the cheddar-jack blend)
1 red pepper, cut into thin strips
1 green pepper, cut into thin strips
8 large tortilla shells
1 can of refried beans
2 cups of cooked rice

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Mix together the cream of cheddar soup, 1/2 cup of salsa, and the sour cream.
2. Set aside about 1/3 of this mixture.
3. Saute the peppers and green onion in a small amount of oil, until soft.
4. Add the cooked vegetables into the cream mixture.
5. Add 1 cup of Mexican cheese into the vegetable/cream mixture.
6. Spoon this mix into 8 tortilla shells. Roll up. (My secret way is to fold the ends in, this holds the mixture in, then fold in the sides. It perfectly keeps it all in.)
7. Spread reserved sauce over the enchiladas. Put in the oven (covered in foil!) Set 45 minutes on your timer.
8. Mix the cooked rice with about a 1/4 of water and 1/4 of salsa. Put the rice in one half (as in one end, not one layer) of a bread pan.
9. Stir the oils really well into the refried beans. Put the beans in the other half of the bread pan.
10. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the cheese over everything.
11. Put this into the oven with the enchiladas (covered in foil!) when there is 25 minutes left on your timer.
12. When the timer goes off, everything is done!

written by marieann

These are Hillary’s recipe for an old favorite. My mother loves these cookies so much she always asks me to make them up for her when I come home. The dough freezes really well. I like them because I think they are kind of healthy for a cookie with all the oats.

Ingredients

1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 c shortening (or butter but shortening is preferable)
1 c light brown sugar; firmly packed
1/2 c white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 Eeggs
2 c old-fashioned rolled oats
1 pk semisweet chocolate chips (12 ounces)

Directions

1. Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. With an electric mixer beat together the shortening, sugars and vanilla in a large bowl until creamy.
3. Add eggs, beating until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in flour mixture and oats. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Drop batter by well-rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheet and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden.
5. Let cool on sheets for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

written by threadslinger

This soup is from an excellent vegeterian cook book called The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet by Nava Atlas. It is an awesome book because the recepies have little ingredients (5 or less as is clearly indicated by title of book. This recepie for potato leek soup is delicious, makes you feel all cozy and awesome because most likely you have all the ingredients except for the leeks (unless you are an avid leek eater which I am not.)

Ingredients

2 T butter
3 to 4 leeks (medium size)
6 large potatos
2 veggie bouillon cubes
1 cup low fat milk

Directions

1. Heat up butter in pot and simmer leeks after chopping them into managable pieces.

2. While leeks are cooking peel and chop up potatos. Make sure to watch leeks so they don’t turn brown but do get wilted.

3. After leeks are cooked put in potatos and add enough water to cover the potatos. Add in boullion cubes and I always add bay leaves to my soups since it gives it a nice flavor.

4. Cook until potatos are soft (like 30 min) then remove about 1/2 C of the potatos with a slotted spoon and smash them down. Add back into soup.

5. Lastly add the milk and have delicious cozy soup.

written by marieann

My friends and I made this vegetarian cookbook together with all our favorite recipes. You can make your own by downloading this word template, here.

You can also download my cookbook and try some of my favorite foods. Right click and download to save it HERE.

written by threadslinger

I decided to do one post featuring the recepies I included in my holiday baked goodies that I gave to my co-workers and a few select friends. Many of these recepies are passed down from my mother, grandmother and aunts and all of them are delicious.

Christmas Fudge

Ingredients
1 Cube butter
12 oz of chocolate chips
2 eggs
1 lb powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions
First, melt butter and chocolate chips together in a microwave or double boiler. In medium bowl, beat eggs and stir in powdered sugar. Add chocolate mixture to egg mixture. Stir in vanilla and nuts. Pour in 8×8 buttered pan. Let sit for about 4-5 hours and cuut into squares.

Grandmas Sugar Cookies

Ingridents
4 C Flour
2 t baking soda
2 t cream of tartar
1 t salt
1 C shortenings
1 C butter
1/2 C Sugar
1 1/2 C powdered Sugar
2 eggs
3 t vanilla

Directions
Blend together shortening, butter, sugar and powdered sugar. Then add in eggs and vanilla. Then mix in flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Bake at 350 for 10 min.

*This recepie is really big so to switch things up I made some of the cookies “stained glass cookies” which involves cutting a hole in the middle of a regular sugar cookie and placing crushed candies in the middle. When you bake it the candy will melt creating a stained glass effect. These are tricky because you have to let the cookies cool so the candy will harden but you don’t want it to cool too long or it will stick to the pan.

Peppermint Meltaways

Cookie ingredients
1/2 C powdered dugar
1 C butter
1/2 t peppermint extract
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 C cornstarch

Glaze ingredients
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
2 T butter
1-2 T milk
1/4 t peppermint exctract
2 to 3 drops red food coloring
Starlight candy, crushed, if desired

Directions
For cookies in large mixing bowl combine sugar, butter and extract. Beat at medium speed until well mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour and cornstarch. Beat until well blended. Cover and refrigerate until firm. Bake at 350 for 10-12 min

For glaze in a small bowl combine powdered sugar, butter and peppermint extract. Graduall add enough milk for desired glazing consistency. Stir in food coloring as desired. Drizzle over cookies and immediately sprinkle with crushed candy if desired.

Snowball Cookies

Ingredients
2 C flour
2 C chopped pecans
1/4 C sugar
1 C butter
1 t vanilla
Powdered Sugar

Directions
In bowl combine all ingredients except powdered sugar. Beat at low speed until well mixed. Then shape rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, place on cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Bake for 18 to 25 min at 325. Take out of oven, cool 5 min and roll in powdered sugar while still warm.